Martin Hadfield was 20 years old when he died. He got a job as a landscape gardener when he left school but lost his job in April last year. His step-father said that, "Martin never claimed any money or benefits in his life. He got nothing off the government and was proud not to." In the space of 3 months he applied for about 40 jobs, unsuccessfully. Before a meeting at the Bury Jobcentre he updated his CV. But, his step-father claimed, the bureaucracy was "ridiculous" and the meeting "unproductive". The following day Martin Hadfield hanged himself.
How do I know all this? It's in the Express. With no sense of irony, let alone shame, the Express reports the tragic suicide of an unemployed young man, one who was too proud to claim benefits. This is the paper which peddles relentless hatred against the poor and unemployed, which uses a special, vicious language when writing about them. It's the paper which would have classed this tragic young man as a feckless, idle, work-shy scrounger if he'd had the temerity to claim benefits (sorry, hand-outs). Presumably its editor Hugh Whittow makes no connection between this death and the abuse vomited by his "journalists". There won't be even a tinge of embarrassment at Express HQ.